Category: nutrition

I love food, don’t get me wrong, and I love to cook that’s for sure. Sometimes I could even spend hours in the kitchen playing around with food… and eating it… BUT I still like what I’m doing to be relatively easy. A lot of nights, the easier the better. I would venture to guess that 4 out of the 7 nights a week I would actually rather not cook dinner… or have someone cook it for me.

What.

No matter how much you love to cook… and eat… I maintain that a side effect of life is the want/need for easy dinners.

So my version of easy may not be anywhere near what someone else’s idea of easy is (although I’ll admit sometimes my version of easy is getting Jeff to pick up pizza), but I promise I spared no effort in making sure this was no effort, while also looking surprisingly like effort at the table!**Now this is an instant pot recipe, but of course you can always throw these exact same goodies in a large stock pot on the stove, bring to a boil, cover and then let simmer on med-low for about 45 minutes, or until your lentils are cooked and veggies are tender!

Lazy Veggie Soup

What You’ll Need

-Some vegetables! In this case I had pre-cut broccoli and cauliflower for extra laziness, whole baby carrots, 1 whole chopped sweet onion, and about 3-4 celery stalks. But you can use whatever veg you have on hand that you might enjoy in soup! (try green beans, or add some cubed potatoes!)

What You’ll Need to do

Eye ball everything. I put “about” 2 cups of each veggie in the instant pot, very loosely estimated, except for the onion which was one whole one, and the celery which ended up being 4 stalks. But basically I just threw stuff into the pot until I thought it looked “good enough”. I know, I know… I should be a cooking instructor.

Cut up your veggies… and also don’t cut your veggies. If you have pre-cut veggies like I did then there is obviously no need to cut it again. Otherwise just roughly cut up your broccoli and cauliflower, keep your baby carrots whole, and roughly chop your celery and onions into large-ish pieces. If you’re catching the point of this all, it’s that everything is done with the upmost-minimal effort.

Dissolve your bouillon cubes in hot water first… if you are not using veggie broth… otherwise you don’t have to do that either.

Toss everything in the instant pot (or stock pot) as you go, along with your extra cup or two of water if needed (just to make sure all your goodies are drowning nicely), and don’t forget to add your tablespoon of garlic powder and 1/2 cup of lentils!

Close your instant pot, set to manual on high pressure for 10 minutes, and when it peeps “done” at you follow it with a quick release.

THEN add your rice noodles, stir and cover slightly to sit for about 5 minutes or so! *if you’re using a stock pot, add your rice noodles after cooking as well, same as you are doing for the instant pot(MOST rice noodles will cook while sitting in the hot soup covered for a few minutes)

Oh yea, and serve! (with some chopped green onion and fresh black pepper, if you want to be extra fancy)

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So now that you’ve got the “jist” of an easy veggie soup, add some other things next time you do it and mix it up at bit! Cubed potatoes or green beans, like previously mentioned. Add some chopped spinach when you add your rice noodles to add some extra green (they will wilt with the heat from the soup without being over cooked). Add a can of whole kernel corn, some frozen peas or some black beans. Throw in some pre-cooked rice or quinoa instead of rice noodles.

I don’t mind it at all actually. In an age where scrolling quickly past hundreds and hundreds of photos is in, and interest in reading long winded blog posts is dwindling (that was painful to type), creating a quick meme to get a point across in a way others will soak it in is nice! The problem is that soooo many of them make me shake my head. Every. Single. Time I see them…. and I’m no saint, even I have used some silly ones before. How I personally feel about things is aalllwaaays important though, so I’m going to go ahead and share them (my thoughts I mean) with you, in sort of a de-bunking style post today!

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Lets start with this guy. I have actually talked about this one briefly before (for different reasons) in my How to Insure Failure post, and that is the whole idea of “Go Big or Go Home!”

I’m not even sure I reeaally need to explain why this one is so silly. Probably the silly-est, and though I may be fond of silliness (Friends reference anyone?), this one has my eyes rolling in full force when I see it STILL floating around.

Where did this feeling that we all need to be fitness models or body builders right out the gate come from? Why do we feel like we MUST BE EXTREME or there is just no point? Can I tell you honestly, I can not even count the amount of times when I have talked myself out of a workout because I felt like I couldn’t commit to an “insane” one. at. that. moment. (you know? “Train insane, or remain the same.”?)

How many times could I have still got a small 10-15 minute workout in, if I hadn’t let myself believe that there was no point in an only 10-15 minute workout?

This is exactly what causes the “Might as well just not do it” attitude.

IMO.

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Alright now this ones an oldy… Ok the last one has been around for a while too, but I remember seeing this one back when I first started my own health journey, and I think I had even shared it then as well!

No wonder so many fail, or don’t even bother trying, if we are spreading the word that good food should be slow, expensive and hard.

The reality is that healthy can be all of those things! “Fake” being the least of them, I’ll give it that. Healthy can certainly be easy, cheap and fast, and to assume other wise could be exactly why some struggle with incorporating healthy choices to their diet.

How easy is it to cut up some veggies to snack on, or slice (or peel even) an orange? How cheap is a bundle of bananas, a bit of celery, bag of rice, can of beans or a sack of potatoes? How fast is it to grab an apple, a handful of trail mix or granola, or *gasp* all three, when you’re in a rush to run out the door?

Obviously these are just SOME examples, but the point is, you just go ahead and be fast cheap and easy baby, go for it.

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Alright these next two are ones where I SEE the point they are trying to make, yet still something about them makes me say “Oh man” every time I scroll past one. The first one being this guy!

It sure would appreciate nutrients ALONG with those calories but do not be fooled. If you are starving do not just eat a handful of cucumbers and tell yourself that’s enough. Feeeeed yourself.

A vitamin water, for example, is *cough* “full” of nutrients in the form of vitamins (and sometimes minerals), it also is devoid of calories. So by the standards of this here quote, it should be just what your body is asking for! But it is not. You will most definitely, and understandably, still be hungry.

I’m gonna need you to go ahead and squuueeeeze the word “empty” between “not” and “calories”, that’d be great (Office Space reference anyone?).

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AND LASTLY.

Ok so this one is suuuper nit-picky, I know, but every time I see it, it just makes me think. So I wanted to share my thoughts. I told you, my thoughts are important.

Food is for fuel, yes… And for health…

And for fun. And for relaxing. And for enjoyment. Food makes memories, and brings culture and creates moods. Food is life and love and pleasure.

We feed ourselves to live, for our bodies to thrive, to be healthy, to invest in our future health… but it also creates joy in this life we work so hard to be healthy in.

So learn to eat healthy. Learn to nourish your body with nutrient dense CALORIES. Learn to make good food choices. Learn how good food can be indulgent food as well as healthful. Learn that eating well doesn’t mean starving yourself or eating blandly or strictly.